The economy

Belize has a small, open economy. In 2025 it produced about BZ$6.66 billion of goods and services at current prices, roughly BZ$16,000 per person, according to the Central Bank of Belize’s 2025 Annual Report. It grew 2.7% in real terms, the fifth year of growth in a row, and the Central Bank expects about 2% in 2026.

All figures on this page are in Belize dollars unless marked US$. Divide by two for US dollars.

Where the money comes from

Services drive it. In 2025 the services sector accounted for 67.0% of the economy’s growth, and Belize ran a record surplus on its trade in services, underpinned mainly by tourism receipts and helped by business process outsourcing (BPO): call centres and back-office work done in Belize for overseas clients.

What tourism brings in, and how the money flows

Who came (Central Bank, 2025):

• 504,907 overnight (“stay-over”) visitors, down 1.6% from 513,065 in 2024. Most, 418,870, came by air.
• 870,495 cruise passengers came ashore, up 8.1%. Most cruise calls were at the Fort Street Tourism Village in Belize City (259 ships); Norwegian’s Harvest Caye had 78.

What they spent. Visitors spent $1,654.7 million (US$827.3 million) in Belize in 2025, the Central Bank’s balance-of-payments figure for “travel”. That is over two-thirds of Belize’s services exports and nearly four times its $445.8 million of goods exports. Take away what Belizeans spent travelling abroad and the net figure is $1,478.4 million. The Bank doesn’t split it between overnight and cruise visitors.

The Statistical Institute’s tourism satellite account, counting only direct effects, put tourism at 11.8% of GDP in 2019 (its latest year), with 24,999 people working in tourism industries: one job in seven. By the Central Bank’s count, tourism and retail together now hold nearly a third of all jobs.

How the government takes its share. Hotel rooms are exempt from GST and pay the hotel tax instead; restaurant meals, tours and most other goods and services pay GST.

Stream	Rate	Per year	Who gets it	As of
Hotel tax	9% of room bill	not published	BTB	2026
GST (meals, tours, goods)	12.5%	$460.9m ᵃ	Central govt	2025/26
Airport passenger service fees	US$53.50	not published	Collected at PGIA ᵇ	2026
PACT conservation fee	US$20	not published	PACT	2026
Hol Chan entry	US$15	not published	Hol Chan reserve ᶜ	2024
Cruise head tax	unconfirmed ᵈ	not published	unconfirmed

ᵃ All GST, from locals and visitors alike; the government doesn’t publish a tourism share. ᵇ PGIA’s FAQ gives the total; it doesn’t say how it is split between the government and the airport. ᶜ Belizeans pay a lower local rate. Only about $0.25 million of marine-reserve visitation fees reached central government in 2025/26 (projected). ᵈ Cruise passengers pay a per-head tax, but we found no official page giving the current rate.

The BTB wants to raise the hotel tax, to 12% or 12.5% by different reports, to pay for sargassum clean-up; on 10 September 2026 the Tourism Minister said nothing was final.

Where the money goes on the ground. The satellite account shows in 2019 overnight visitors spent 48.8% of their money on accommodation, 18.6% on other purchases such as groceries, drinks and phone services, and 13.5% at restaurants and bars. Same-day visitors, mostly cruise passengers, spent most on other purchases (32.9%) and food and drink (23.4%). Hotels employ the most tourism workers (11,076), then restaurants and bars (8,618).

San Pedro’s share. In 2025 Ambergris Caye had 24.8% of Belize’s hotels and other accommodation and 31.1% of its hotel rooms, more than anywhere else, the BTB says. Its rooms earned more than any other area’s, $239.70 per available room a night, and were 44.5% full, second to Hopkins. The hotel tax goes to the BTB, not the Town Council, which lives mainly on property tax, traffic fees and trade licences: see where the town’s money comes from.

Farming and fishing

These are the traditional exports. Domestic exports of goods came to $445.8 million in 2025:

Export (2025)	BZ$ million	Change on 2024
Sugar	120.3	−26.3%
Bananas	92.1	+12.5%
Marine products	46.4	+24.9%
Citrus juices	24.3	−4.5%
Molasses	9.6	−61.9%
Everything else (“non-traditional”)	153.2	−3.5%

Marine exports are mainly lobster (about $29.4 million in 2025), conch (about $14.5 million) and farmed shrimp. The country buys far more goods than it sells: imports were about $2.77 billion in 2025, the largest groups being machinery and transport equipment, fuel, manufactured goods and food.

Jobs. Unemployment fell to 2.0% in 2025, which the Central Bank calls a historic low.

The Belize dollar

The Belize dollar has been fixed at BZ$2 to US$1 since 11 May 1976; 2026 is the peg’s fiftieth year. The Central Bank buys US dollars at exactly 2.00 and sells them at 2.0175 (rate published 22 September 2026). Because the rate never moves, working out US prices is simple arithmetic. If a price is not marked BZ$ or US$, ask which it is.

Taxes you will meet

• General Sales Tax (GST): 12.5% on most goods and services. Some basic goods and services are zero-rated or exempt. Businesses with taxable turnover above $75,000 (US$37,500) a year must register.
• Departure tax for people leaving by land or by water to Guatemala or Mexico: BZ$40 (US$20), paid at the border. When you fly out, it is usually already in the fare.

Government money

The government’s financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. The latest full year, 2025/26, ended in March 2026. The figures below are the Ministry of Finance’s projected outturn, published with the budget on 10 March 2026, three weeks before the year closed: close to final, but not audited actuals.

Central government, 2025/26	BZ$ million	US$ million
Taxes on goods and services (mainly GST)	790.9	395.4
Taxes on income and profits	426.3	213.2
Taxes on international trade (import duties and fees)	239.6	119.8
Property taxes	8.2	4.1
Non-tax revenue (licences, royalties, fees)	125.5	62.7
Grants and capital revenue	62.9	31.5
Total revenue and grants	1,653.4	826.7
Salaries	598.8	299.4
Pensions	123.1	61.5
Goods and services	266.0	133.0
Interest on the public debt	131.8	65.9
Subsidies and transfers	109.6	54.8
Capital projects	458.2	229.1
Total spending	1,687.5	843.8
Deficit	−34.1	−17.1

GST and other taxes on goods and services bring in nearly half of all revenue. Salaries and pensions take 58 cents of every dollar of day-to-day spending, the Prime Minister said in his budget speech. By purpose, he put the year’s spending at $275.3 million on education, $218.0 million on public security, $146.2 million on health (including National Health Insurance) and $130.5 million on infrastructure. Total spending works out at roughly $4,000 (US$2,000) per resident.

The deficit was 0.49% of GDP, smaller than the 0.60% budgeted. The year before, 2024/25, closed with an actual deficit of $27.8 million (0.40% of GDP). The 2026/27 budget plans $1,792.6 million of revenue and $1,902.9 million of spending, a deficit of $110.3 million (1.49% of GDP), with a record capital programme that includes $19.1 million towards a new hospital in San Pedro Town.

Debt. Total public debt was $4,676.2 million (US$2.34 billion) at the end of 2025, about 64% of it owed abroad. The Central Bank puts that at 70.2% of GDP; the budget speech says “approximately 66.6 percent”. The gap comes from the GDP figure each uses. Either way it is down from the 130%-plus the government says it inherited in 2020.

Prices and the cost of living

Inflation was low in 2025, averaging 1.1%, the third year in a row that it eased. Food and home rents rose; fuel and technology got cheaper.

Island life costs more. Goods reach Ambergris Caye by boat or plane, and some utilities are priced higher on the cayes than on the mainland: water in San Pedro costs roughly two and a half times the mainland rate, as our explainer Where San Pedro’s water comes from sets out. Power is another story: see Why does Belize lose power?.

An island that lives on visitors

Ambergris Caye is the largest of Belize’s offshore islands, and San Pedro is its town. The mid-2026 estimate puts San Pedro Town at 16,777 people, and much of the island’s work (hotels, dive and tour boats, golf-cart rentals, restaurants, the water taxis) depends on overnight visitors. Those visitors come mostly from one country: in 2025, 72.3% of stay-over arrivals to Belize were from the United States, and the Central Bank put that year’s dip in arrivals down partly to US policy changes and weaker global growth. That is why a storm warning, a sargassum season or a power cut weighs so heavily here.

How does all this compare with the United States, person for person? See Belize and the US, per person.